001We're good. Yep. Right. If we could reconvene our meeting um to open session. Uh the board was in executive session from 6:00 to 6:30 to discuss uh a legal matter and a personnel matter. Um, and then from 6:30 to 7:00, we had our 2025 tenure faculty reception. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Introductions. Dave Hurst. Katherine Natto, Mango, Jody Monroe, Holly Deleno, Amanda, John Walston, Robert Tent, John McFillip, and Lori Graasso is not able to be here this evening. Um, do we have any um pigs or soup students here tonight? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Um, you guys need to stay until the meeting
002is over or 9:00, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without coming up and signing out on one of the sheets that are up here on the table. That way you get credit for being here. Uh, first up is our approval of minutes. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the May 21st, 2025 regular board meeting. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes. Um item three are meeting reports and first up is our superintendent report. Uh thank you. So, we have a lot of uh special people here with us tonight. But before we recognize them, I just have a quick um update on two things. LA at our last meeting, a community member um was concerned about the ballot
003issue during the vote and we did get a call from the board of elections uh indicating that it was their fault that was in the title of the proposition for the capital reserve fund. It said bus reserve in the language. Uh, we did run it by our council. The board of elections also ran it by their council. They said there's no issues with the vote itself. So, I did want to let the board know that they did reach out and apologize uh for the error. Also, our UPK lottery happened on Friday. Uh, we have 92 spots and we were able well, we were able to fill those through the lottery. We do have a waiting list of about 10 students or so at this point. So, we notified families who were selected for the lottery.
004They have until next Wednesday, I believe, to let us know if they want the spots either at TSL or child time. And if anyone refuses it, then we'll go to the waiting list and fill any of the spots that are left. So, we should have a good number of students who are able to take advantage of that this coming year. And finally, uh we want to move to our tenure recipients tonight. All of them. I can't believe some of them have been with us for as many years as they have. Um, all of the board members have heard about all of you during the course of the year. Some I know board members have been in your classes, but uh really just a real heartfelt congratulations. It's great to have you as permanent members to
005BC. So, we're going to have a little recognition. We have um certificates up here and uh Dr. Hurst will announce all of you and you're going to have photos as you come up. So, make sure you're smiling nicely. So, hold on. You'll go. Uh, and then, uh, so we'll go ahead and get started. Do you want to do the Do you want to do the action first, the appointment? Do you want to do the voting first? Sure. Definitely. We can. All right. Just to make it official. We'll make it official first and then give you your certificate. How's that? Um, uh, item B, professional personnel action items, tenure appointments. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items 1 through 21. So move second. Um any
006discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That motion carries. Regulation cut. [Applause] Okay. Receiving tenure in the area of art, Deborah Anderson. receiving tenure in the area of elementary principal. Andy Baker [Applause] Make this more awkward. Thank you so much. Receiving tenure in the area of guidance counseling. McKenzie Fworth. receiving tenure in the area of elementary education. Dominic Gallow. achieving tenure in the area of library media specialist Kaye Hafner. [Music] achieving tenure in the area of mathematics. Jessica Hock Thanks so much. Achieving tenure in the area of English language arts supervisor Dan Hash. [Applause] just achieving tenure in the area of art. Emily Judah. I bet those of you who are sitting in the front are glad you chose us. achieving tenure in the area of elementary principal. Ian Knox achieving tenure in
007the area of special education. Mike Cotcher Thank you. Achieving tenure in the area of remedial reading. Sarah Ler. Congratulations. achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. Samantha Link [Music] achieving tenure in the area of health. Tom Maldonado [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Achieving tenure in the area of elementary education, Dre Marton. achieving tenure in the area of guidance counselor Grace [Applause] McDermott. Thank you. Congratulations achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. G McGrath. achieving tenure in the area of foreign language. Rebecca Meline achieving tenure in the area of special education. Matt Melnikov [Applause] achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. Hannah Metsel Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Achieving tenure in the area of science. Tom Nicholas. [Music] Congratulations. Thank you. Achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. Cara Qualia. [Applause]
008achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. Taylor Stoddard [Applause] achieving tenure in the area of elementary education. Amanda Wilson Congratulations. Receiving tenure in the area of elementary education. Katie Zaneki. [Applause] Can we have another round of applause for all And you are all welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but if you would like to go, please feel free. got to be here doing what are you doing tomorrow? Hello. Thank you. Yeah. Heat. Everybody [Music] Why is Thank you. [Music] Yeah, voting first was a good idea. Um, next up is our uh board report. Um, I wanted to first uh thank everybody who was involved with putting together the um AAPI uh food festival uh last Friday. As usual, they sold out of their um all of the delicious offerings. Um I
009think just so you know, if you ever come in the future, you have to say it starts at 5:30. You want to be there at like 5:20 to get in line because everything sells out very quickly. But it was um delicious and a lot of fun as always. Um I also wanted to congratulate uh the cast and crew of 12th night that was also this past weekend um and give a special recognition to their director Miss Edgar um as she's retiring this year and so that was her last um Shakespearean play that she'll be putting on for us here. Um but it was terrific. They did a great job. Um, I wanted to make sure everybody knew that the um, Spectrum concert is happening um, tomorrow night uh, here at the high school at 7.
010And um, if anyone is available and can come, I highly recommend it because it's um, always a great concert. Um, and usually is lasts about an hour. Yeah. Um, so is 50 minutes. 50 minutes. It's a welloiled machine. Um, but I love that concert. So I highly recommend attending if you can. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to um recognize a happy pride month. Um, and that the Pride Festival for Bethlehem is on June 21st. Um, this year it's a Saturday. Hopefully um they get some sunshine and not some rain. Um, but um I know many of our students and families are involved uh with the Bethlehem Festival, so I definitely encourage everybody to go out and support it. Um, if anyone has anything else, Catherine? Yeah, just a couple things. Um, I also
011had the opportunity to attend some fantastic concerts uh in the past week, both elementary and middle school, and it's just really amazing to see how much those students have grown and flourished in the music program. So, um, I just want to say congratulations to all the performers and to the teachers who have guided them as they have become, you know, just stronger musicians every year. So, that's really cool. And I also got to um attend the uh Bethleam traditional Irish dance recital on Friday which was held in our auditorium here. And I just wanted to give shout out to to Andrew White behind the curtain there who who doesn't always get recognized for his hard work. But the sound system was great. The lights were working great. Everything was also a welloiled machine there. So,
012thank you, Andrew. Um, and, uh, and to, and to the folks who make it possible for us to, uh, have that space available for community groups. So, thank you. Anybody else? I had kind of one question really. I know there was a a DOE memo from Linda M public school superintendent. Did we receive this? No. Basically saying stop doing anything involving equity or Oh, that was a a while ago. It went it went out to schools and there was some survey. That's if that's the one. There was another one last week, but Okay. Oh, I didn't see thing this past week. I'm guessing that the next part, which is did we make a response yet? No. Cool. No, I think the last time that New York State Oh, just for the state level, right? That
013makes more sense. On behalf of the entire state. Yeah, um I just wanted to note that there are a lot of end of the year events starting up right now and I wanted to thank everyone involved with the planning and executing of those. I know we had our fifth grade survivor day. Um we're going to have a lot of field days coming up and um those events mean a lot to the kids and to the parents as well as milestone events. So I just wanted to thank everybody involved in um planning all those events and and have making um the end of the year very special for our kids. Thank you. Uh next are student reports. So, do we have anyone from high school student senate? I didn't think so. It's do. And it's the
014senior banquet. Oh, and it's a senior banquet tonight. Yeah. Um I should All right. So, next is our presentation this evening. Um and we are having our presentation on our on universal meals from our food service director. Hi everyone. Um, so I'm excited to be here tonight to present on universal free meals for all. Um, so I'll be giving just a general overview on what universal free meals will look like next year for our students um, and for our community. So universal free meals will begin in the 2526 school year, meaning every student at Bethlehem will be eligible for one free breakfast and one free lunch each day. Um, if you recall from my my previous presentations, um, Bethlehem currently and in the past has not qualified for what's called the community eligibility provision. That's,
015um, also called C. Um, and that's that's what qualifies a district for free meals. Um, the qualifying threshold for C is 25%. Uh, meaning 25% of the student population has to qualify for free. Um currently, uh Bethlehem is at around 15.6% free. So without this passage of universal free meals, it really would have been difficult for our district to to um be able to do this. So this is a really big win um for our district and and for students in New York State. Um so just a couple things I wanted to highlight. Universal free meals is only available to students. Um, so unfortunately adults are not included in in universal free meals. Um, additional meals, so second meals or allocart items. So things like snacks and drinks. Um, these are going to require payment.
016So students are going to have to have money in hand or money on their account to to purchase those items. Um, and then the school lunch program is going to operate under what's called provision 2, which I'll uh go into more detail on in the in the next slide. Um, so what is provision two? So the districts that are not operating under the community eligibility provision are going to be operating under what's called provision 2. Um, two important things I want to highlight is that under this provision, every student is going to get free breakfast and lunch each day. Um, and ultimately there's going to be less paperwork for families under this provision. Um, so so how does it work? What does it look like? So, next school year, the 2526 school year, um is
017going to be year 1 or what they call the base year. Um so, within this base year, all students are going to be eating for free. Um we're still going to be collecting free and reduced applications throughout the school year. Um and this is to set our funding for for the um years 2 through 4. So funding will be based on those per percentages of free, reduced, and paid students from that base year. Um during years two and four, these are these are called the non-base years. Um all students will continue to eat for free. Um no new applications will be needed during these uh non-base years. Um and the year one data will be used for reimbursements for these years um multiplied by by the meal counts. Um what's important to note with provision
0182 is that starting in the 2526 school year, the state will be covering that funding gap so that every meal served is going to get reimbursed at that free reimbursement rate. Um so if you recall from previous presentations that free reimbursement rate is really the maximum reimbursement rate we can get. Um so whether you are free reduced or paid every student is getting reimbursed at that free reimbursement rate. um why the student eligibility determination is going to be really important next school year during that that year 1 or that base year is because it's going to determine who's footing the bill for the reimbursements. Okay, so as you can see I have a chart on the screen here. Um, so the federal government is going to be covering most of the reimbursement for those free
019and reduced students and then the state is going to be covering most of the reimbursement for those those paid students. Um, I just want to note that these are current reimbursement rates for the current school year. Um, we do not have the 25 26 reimbursement rates yet. Those will come out sometime in July. Um but this is how you know the reimbursements will be split up between uh the state and the federal government based on eligibility. Um so like I said in the previous slide, eligibility or determining eligibility is going to be really important during this first year. um because we want to try to capture as many of those free and reduced students as we can and get those free and reduced numbers up um just because we'll be able to maximize that federal
020reimbursement and you know take less and put less of a burden on on the state. Um so, you know, I really encourage families to fill out the free and reduced application in the new school year. Um it will just go in it'll just you know increase the funding for our program. Uh that application is going to be available sometime after July 1st. It's it's it's online. It's easy to fill out. It's confidential. Um and there will there will be notification when that application is available. Um I also want to highlight that qualifying for free and reduced meals isn't just about food service. Um there's other benefits to qualifying. So things like um free cap and gown for graduation, uh wave standardized testing fees, um help purchasing review books or school supplies. Um these are all
021benefits to qualifying. So you know, again, I I encourage families to fill out that application next year because again, there's other benefits benefits to it. Um, and of course, you know, like I said, this is this is a a a big win for our district, universal free meals, and there's a ton of benefits um to offering free meals to to all students. Um, things like reduced food insecurity, um, saving families money. That's going to be a big one. Um, it's been projected that families on average will be saving about $165 per child in grocery spending each month. So, that's that's huge. Uh, better nutrition for our students, improved academic performance, um, feeding more students means we're going to have uh more funding coming into our program, which will only strengthen our school meal program. Um,
022and then an elimination of school meal debt. This is huge. This is going to relieve a lot of stress on on families and on on the school district. Um and of course there's there's going to be challenges. This is going to be a big lift for our department. Um we have gone through something like this before during COVID as as you all recall uh meals were free. So um staff have been through something like this before. Um but operations are definitely be a little bit different with this new school year. During COVID I mean there was hybrid schedules. not everybody was in school. We were packaging meals up. Um this is going to be a little bit different. Um so some of the challenges that I foresee um obviously are higher costs. We're going to
023be feeding more students. Um so our food costs are going to be higher. Um equipment and infrastructure investments. So feeding more students means that we're going to need more storage, more small like uh you know pans and trays. Um, so there's going to be some initial investments to to get the program going. Um, staffing and kitchen capacities will probably be stressed due to this increased demand and the increase in meals. Um, and I'm probably going to be rolling out a a simplified menu for the start of the school year. um just a comfortable menu so that um the food service department can get situated um and and and kind of figure out the day-to-day and we can get a handle on what our numbers are going to look like dayto-day. Um and then obviously there's
024going to be longer lunch lines. If we're feeding more kids, lines are going to be longer. Um I've already started discussions with some of the elementary principles about, you know, how we can have a more efficient uh uh serving line. Um, so we're talking about things like getting, you know, K through five, get everyone to know their their PIN numbers so that cashiers don't have to sit there and, you know, look up the kids number and and plug it in. Um, and then just, you know, some restructuring how kids order meals at the elementary level um just to to to have more efficient um serving lines. So meal counts. So, I wanted to show what the potential increase in meal counts could look like for next school year. Um, so I took meal counts from
025the 2324 school year, which was really our last full normal year. Um, and I compared them to the meal counts from the 2122 school year, which was during COVID, um, when all students were in school and eating for free. And during the 2122 school year, we served about 127,000 more meals. Um, so this shows there is potential for meal counts to increase roughly 42% next school year. Um, and obviously with this increase in meal counts, we're going to see an increase in reimbursement revenue. So this chart is comparing reimbursement revenue year-toear. So the the light pink and the gray bars represent the 23 and the 24 school year and the 24 and the 25 school year. And these are showing actual reimbursement um in addition to the revenue we make from that paid student meal.
026Um the dark orange bar is representing the uh projected reimbursement revenue we will make in the 2526 school year. Um, and I just I I came to those calculations by taking the 2122 meal counts and simply multiplying them by the current free reimbursement to get an idea of what our reimbursements will look like. Um, again, these are the current reimbursement. We don't have the new reimbursements yet. Um, and I also want to point out that this revenue does not include allocart sales. And I do foresee all cart sales are going to go up next school year. I think with uh breakfast and lunch being free, households may have, you know, a little more disposable income, which means kids may want, you know, second meals or snacks. Um, so I do I do foresee uh, you
027know, our revenue being impacted by those those sales as well. So, the revised revenue for the 2526 school year shows a projected $400,000 increase in revenue. Um, a couple things I just want to uh point out in this chart. If you look at the top line, which is lunch and breakfast, the revised revenues show zero. Um, this is the line that represented the revenue we were making from that paid student meal. Since meals are now free, that is that's now zero. But if you go down to the state and federal line, um, you'll see that our reimbursements have increased quite a bit. And that is because you know every meal is going to be getting reimbursed at that free reimbursement rate. Um and then like I said I do foresee all cart sales increasing. It's
028hard to determine what revenue is going to look like from allocart sales right now. Um, I did talk to some area directors at a conference I was recently at and um, their districts, you know, when they had gone free under C, they said they initially saw a drop in all cart sales just because parents aren't loading as much money onto student accounts. U, um, but they did see it pick back up. So, I do see that happening for us as well. And then expenditures. Um, so for expenditures, most lines are staying the same except for food products. So, you know, we're feeding more kids, which means we are going to have higher food costs. So, the revised 2526 food budget is $915,000. Um, and then looking at revenues and expenditures, I'm projecting to break even
029for the 2526 school year, um, with a net gain of roughly $5,900. Um, this is a really nice swing from what I was projecting in the last presentation. Um, so, as you can see, I'm projecting that a general fund subsidy will no longer be needed um, at the end of next school year, which is huge. So, what do families need to do right now? Um, so like I said in in earlier slides, I really encourage families to fill out that free and reduced application. Um, the new application is going to be available sometime after July 1st. It's digital, it's quick, it's confidential. Um, and that will be on the food service web page. Um, as far as lunch accounts go, any money that's remaining on a child's account will carry over to the next school
030year. So, that money can be used for for snacks, for drinks, for second meals. Um, and if a student is is new to the school lunch program and they have an allergy or an intolerance, um, we ask that they contact the school nurse. the school nurse will relay the allergy or intolerance to the food service department and we'll work with that family to make reasonable accommodations for their meals. Um and then meal account alerts. Um if if stu if if there is a student and the parents do not want them to buy snacks or to participate in the program um we need to put an alert on their account. Um so just contact the food service office and we can add those alerts. Um, you know, the food service staff are trained not to deny
031students a meal unless there is a a note on that account from the parent or guardian. So, if that's the case, just get in contact with food service and and we can set that up. Any questions? I have a couple to start. So, families that are currently um eligible for free and reduced meals, do they need to reapply? Yes. So, um, their eligibility carryovers carries over 30 days into the new school year. So, um, but yes, families have to reapply annually. Okay. Yep. Um, and do we do outreach um to those families? Like, so say there's somebody who doesn't reapply that maybe was um eligible for the program this past year. I'm thinking in order to capture as many um families as we can. We do send out a parent letter um during the summer.
032Um and I'm working right now on um like a food service one pager to send out just to give families, you know, all the information, the new information that they need to know. So that will go out um and we'll send reminders at the beginning of the school year as well. Yep. Um, and then I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how breakfast is might work at the different building levels because I'm thinking that might be a lot more kids now coming in trying to get some breakfast at the beginning of the day. Something that we we rolled out this year at the elementary schools was we used to be what's called offer versus serve. So that means kids can kind of pick and choose how to build their meal. um this year
033to try to move kids through the line quicker um we switch to what's called straight serve. So they're getting all of the components in the me in the the breakfast meal um and they just kind of grab and go. So that's something I'm going to carry over into this new school year so that um you know there's less hanging out in line trying to decide what they want. It's really just kind of grabbing their tray with the food on it and and and scooting out of line. So other questions Katherine? Yeah. Um so first of all thank you and you know I am sure I'm certain in fact that Governor HL and uh Speaker Hasty and Assembly or excuse me Senate Majority Leader uh Stuart Cousins are watching us this evening on the live cast.
034But I will extend our thanks to the to state leaders for including this in the budget. Um, joking aside though, you know, I think this is I think this is amazing that we're able to offer this to all of our families throughout the district and I really thank you for all of the planning and all the work. I'm sure this is going to represent a very big shift for you and for your team. Um, so thank you for that. One thing I just want to just to for for the sake of saying is like please do keep in touch. And Jod and John, it it seems as though with these changes, you know, we may have to anticipate additional staff being needed in order to continue to move kids through in a, you know, in
035a timely manner. Um, so really welcome that ongoing conversation as we continue to, you know, revise the budget or as we continue to work with the budget and look toward next year. Um, so please keep in touch on that. One question though, if I recall from when we were having a conversation about food services in the fall, I believe um was that the reimbursement rates at that time that they were actually lower than what the cost of providing a meal for a student is. And and my memory isn't always the best. I think at that time we were thinking a lot of the alleart options were going to help even that out and um potentially some of the um the transfer from the general fund as well. So John, I don't know if you're the
036the right person to direct this to or but just how how has that sh has that shifted? Do we still do we expect that this is going to you know fully cover the cost or will we need to are we just just thoughts on that? Yeah. Um, so I think when we you're talking about the presentation I gave in the fall when we were I think doing the meal price increases. Yes. Yes. Um, so raw food costs plus labor. Yes, you are correct that the what goes into making a meal um did exceed the reimbursements. Um, taking that I I've taken that into consideration as we look into next school year. I I know financially we look like we're going to be in a better spot. Um but there are definitely things that I'm going
037to do next school year to um scale back a bit. Um you know, like I said, a more simplified menu. Um try to uh scale back in certain areas so that we can get to a better spot financially within within our department. Got it. Yep. Thank you. And then this has been a big shift. Have have we seen any other um you know I you know for example we didn't wind up the legislature did not opt to um change the way that local food is reimbured for breakfast right that didn't go through the 30% initiative I no did not um and then were there any other regulatory shifts or any other things that came along with the universal free meals? Um the only things that I can I can speak to are um there was
038some loss of funding which I I spoke of in the last presentation. Uh notably that that local food for schools grant which was huge for our our program. I hope that they'll reconsider that and bring that back. Um but John and I actually have a meeting tomorrow state is holding a a a webinar on universal free meals. So, I'm hoping that we'll we'll get more information tomorrow on on what things are going to look like and if there's any updates um on the program. Yep. And with the and and so maybe this is a question to follow up on after that. Do do we expect that this that the shift will impact what types of foods can be purchased or what can be offered for meal lunches? Do we see any other stipulations coming with
039this? Um the only shift to the I will see we we did have a a lot of nice local foods coming in the school year due to that grant. Um so we probably won't see as much of that this year. Um we still are going to do the harvest of the month. Our um produce distributor has a lot of great local produce. Um so we will have that monthtomonth. Um and we've also um Mark has has doubled the size of our our kitchen high school garden. So we will have at least at the beginning of the school year a lot of great very local produce coming into our kitchens. So there will be that. So no no decrease in the quality of our food. No no no major changes. Um just a little less local
040unfortunately. But we'll get back there. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? The only other question that I had with this is whether we will still be able to offer um uh vegetarian meals, kosher meals, hal like anything in those categories. Yep. So, I am um that's very top of mind for me. So, I can't remember if I mentioned this in the last presentation, but there's a local uh food distributor that actually makes kosher and halal foods. And a lot of what they make they also make individually wrapped. Um so we were looking at we we sampled some um I think it was like a bean and cheese empanada. Um cheese omelets uh these bagel bite types things. All all of everything they make is is kosher and halal. Um so I'm
041going to try to work some of those items into just like a daily alternate option at our schools. Great. So and the vegetarian options uh we have those daily right now. those will continue. Um, but what I'd really like to do is get some of those kosher and halal options on our menu as a as an option. So, y Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Uh, next is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item, now would be the time to come to the microphone. Uh item six, action items. A finance action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items one through five. Second. Any discussion?
042Yeah, one thing. um the Tyler technologies which is you know the redistricting consultant survey stuff one of the items in there says um that change in school start times are not currently on the table which I understand I think it would be worthwhile to have them actually look at what the impact would be right is there anything that we can do in terms of making that easier while we're looking at this stuff like a worthwhile decision on the amendment the contract with Tyler Find the exact page you want. Um page Oh, from the original comment three or 14. So it's actually page 12. So is this from the original John proposal? So, it's an amendment to an original contract that transportation had engaged in back in January of 2025. So, a lot of the terms
043and conditions from that January 2025 contract carried over into the amendment. Mhm. But this is all this isn't from Jan this is all the new one. This is this is all new. That's correct. So, one of the things we asked them is if they can find some efficiencies with routing and things. So, certainly if they can take a look at that. um they're not going to look at those school start times specifically as part of this, right? They have a list of, you know, additional considerations for this project for routing and stuff. Um I just know there's a bullet point that says, you know, bell time changes are not an option currently, which I understand. But if it if they see something where this would be easier to make, you know, school start earlier. It's
044part of the process. Yeah, I think that's worth. Yeah. I mean, obvious Yeah. Is that Yeah, we can we can talk to them about that. Thank you. I um all in favor. I Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. B. Professional personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent. The board of education approve the following professional personnel action items 1 through 23. So move. Second. Um, and I just wanted to point out because I don't if you're looking on a the paper copy, um, I think the under number five, u Mackenzie Barretts, the start date is actually it should be September 1st, 2025, right? Um, and that was corrected in the um in the agenda, but I think it was after one day difference, but okay. So So these things matter. Um, uh, all in
045favor? I I any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh C. Support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items one through nine. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any extensions? That carries. D. Other action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following action items one through three. Second. Uh any discussion? Yeah, the policies. Um John Holly asked me to ask you that with the you know policy on school use and so on by outside groups. There's nothing in there about cost. I know we've had discussion of differential cost for different bodies. Is that something that's a different policy? So that will be in the facilities use handbook which uh is
046currently under uh review and and updating for for various things. Uh the price of various spaces throughout the district have haven't been updated. we've have new amenities such as the turf field and whether or not um turf field with without lights, some other um high use space, auditoriums and the like. Um we're updating the facility use handbook to reflect a more updated price schedule uh as well as some changes and feedback that we have from various departments and divisions in in the district. Okay. Um, on the policy itself, it looks as though, if I read it correctly, for instance, a religious group can hire or rent a building as long as they're not doing a religious activity. And likewise, a political group can rent it as long as they're not doing political activity. Am I
047reading this correctly? That's correct. I think I don't have it in front of me, but I believe that's correct. Okay. Thanks. Um, all in favor? I opposed. Any extensions? That carries. Um, item seven, recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. If you have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item, now would be the time to come to the microphone. If you could just state your name for it. Sure. Be great. Good evening everyone. My name is Eileen Daiser and I have a fifth grader and a middle school student in the district. Just realized I don't have my readers on. I've also been recently elected as the middle school representative for the district's newly formed special education parent teacher association. As the parent of a special needs child, I'm
048coming before the board to bring attention to an issue that not only affects my son, but seven other students who will be in the eighth grade for the 2025 20226 school year. As you're aware, students are aware assigned to a team when they transition into middle school. Hudson, Mohawk, and Patrun. When I attended the sixth grade parents orientation, the team counselor spoke about the team system and how students will still think of their team as their home. I was excited for my son to begin middle school and spend the entirety of his middle school career with the familiar faces of his fellow students, teachers both past, present, and future, and have the comfort of rout routine and consistency. For two years, this was the case. However, it was decided by district district administration that two
049of Patrun's DCT classrooms consisting of eight special needs students would be moved off team to a new team Hudson for their very last year of school. While other general education students will spend their last year of the middle school in familiar surroundings with their friends, these eight students, these vulnerable students will be forced to navigate a new routine, a new part of the building, new students and teachers that for the most part are wholly unfamiliar to them, all while adjusting to the rigors of eighth grade academics. My son, upon hearing that we he would be forced to change houses through no fault of his own, was bereft. Let me be clear. This decision by the district administration in regards to these students is not equitable. It's not in their best interests and it's not acceptable.
050I was fortunate to have a very productive conversation about this issue with our middle school principal, Mike Kleman, my son's resource room teacher, and the assistant director of special education today. I very much appreciated Dr. Kugman's cander and empathy and willingness to collaborate and I am endlessly grateful for the efforts of my son's teacher who has been a truly amazing and tireless advocate. I feel confident that we all want the best for these kids. But we shouldn't have to have these difficult conversations because this decision should have never happened in the first place. Make no mistake, in my opinion, this type of move would never happen to general education students. Never would the district consider disrupting the final year of middle school for a group of eighth grade general eds kids in this way because
051it would cause outrage and rightfully so. So then why is it okay for our special education students and only our special education students? I'm well aware that despite all of this, the district is still following FAPE free appropriate public education. In my opinion, that's the bare minimum. And these kids deserve more than the bare minimum. They are not a rubric or a test score or a piece of paper. They deserve consideration and care. They deserve stability. They deserve a school experience that values their emotional and mental well-being and not just legal compliance. The message this decision sends to these kids is that they don't matter. That their relationships and their comfort zones and their place in the school are disposable. And as a parent, that is heartbreaking. These are kids that thrive on consistency, who
052rely on familiar environments and staff to feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Stripping that away for their last year of middle school isn't just disruptive, it's harmful. You are asking these kids to rebuild their trust, to rebuild comfort, rebuild their sense of place at a time when they should be enjoying the stability they have earned after years of adjusting and growing. This is not just a logistical shift. It's a social and emotional upheaval and that matters. These kids matter. My son matters. It pains me to say that sometimes I believe the needs of our special education students are not prioritized in this district as they should be. If they were, I wouldn't be here tonight. I wouldn't need to ask for a basic level of compassion and foresight for these kids because these these
053decisions say to these special education parents, of which I am one, that our kids' needs are an afterthought or if they're considered at all. I'm standing here tonight not just for my son, but honestly for all eight of these kids and for their families who may not know how to speak up, for the students who can't articulate how much this hurts them. And for the principle that every child in this district deserves to feel valued, included, and seen. The momentum of frustrated special education parents coming to coming together to affect positive change is growing. And that's great. And there have been positive steps forward in this district and positive changes and I'm happy to see that. But if our local Oh, I'm sorry. And if our local social media is to be believed, people are
054taking notice. Special education parents, general education parents, allies, and friends. Board members, I urge you to step in. I urge you to reverse this decision. I urge you to remember that what it truly means to serve all students, not just the ones that are easiest to schedule for, who have the best test scores, who fall neatly into the system. I thank you all so much for the opportunity to speak this evening and for considering my request. Thank you. Thank you. Um item eight, future meetings and events. Um on this coming Monday, June 9th, um at 5:00 here at the high school, uh is the audit committee meeting and then at 6:00 is the policy committee meeting. Um on Wednesday, June 18th is our next regularly scheduled board meeting. Um anticipating executive session at 6:00 and
055reconvening to open session at 7. On Thursday, June 26th, um at 8:30 a.m., we have the eighth grade moving up ceremony um at the high school in Jim B. And then, um at 2:00 is the class of 2025 graduation at the MVP Arena. Um and then on Tuesday, July 1st, um is our organizational um board of education meeting anticipating executive session at 6:00 and reconvening to open session at 7. Um seeing uh no need to go back into executive session, uh could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So move. Second. All in favor? I I meeting.